Mother Goose
As I did walk by Hampstead Fair
I came upon Mother Goose
So I turned her loose
She was screaming.
And a foreign student said to me --
Was it really true,
There are elephants and lions too
In Piccadilly circus?
Walked down by the bathing pond
To try and catch some sun.
Saw at least a hundred schoolgirls sobbing
Into handkerchiefs as one.
I don’t believe they knew
I was a schoolboy.
And a bearded lady said to me
If you start your raving and your misbehaving
You’ll be sorry.
Then the chicken-fancier came to play
With his long red beard
(And his sister’s weird:
She drives a lorry).
Laughed down by the putting green --
I popped `em in their holes.
Four and twenty labourers were labouring
Digging up their gold.
I don’t believe they knew
That I was Long John Silver.
Saw Johnny Scarecrow make his rounds
In his jet-black mac (which he won’t give back) --
Stole it from a snow man.
By Ian Anderson (from Jethro Tull)
According to Ian, Mother Goose is about various images that he saw as he wandered around Hampstead Heath. It's the same sort of abstract idea as 'Cross-Eyed Mary', it's full of surrealism.